El Salvador plays tape of man offering bribes for them to fix a World Cup qualifier

During a press conference on Monday, El Salvador players and coaches played a recording of a man who offered them incentive to fix a World Cup qualifier. El Salvador cannot advance to the next round of qualifying, while their opponents on Tuesday -- Canada -- can. The man who approached them was representing the interests of Honduras, who could potentially be eliminated if they lose to Mexico and Canada beats El Salvador.

This is a strange scenario for a few reasons. One, match fixers are generally weary of getting caught on tape for obvious reasons. Two, you generally don’t approach a team that you want to win with a match fixing proposal. It’s not like El Salvador was asked to throw a game. They were basically just offered a bribe to not quit on the game.

Back in 2013, numerous Salvadoran players were handed lifetime bans for fixing games. El Salvador is the exact type of team that attracts the attention of fixers because their games are low profile enough to fix, but high profile enough that there will be lots of normal betting action on them. They’re good enough to get into matches against top teams, but poor enough that multiple-goal losses are believable. Most players also have low enough salaries that bribes from fixers can be tempting.

But it appears that this generation of Salvadoran players has learned something from the last, and isn’t interesting in helping match fixers.

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